Here we go again...

The gelatin stars were a failure. They looked like sea creatures--kind of like a cross between a jellyfish and a starfish. They were actually remarkably organic and slimy looking. But that's not what I was after. So I took one of the molds and tried making ice. The result: a star that looked like it was made of ice. Hmmm.

Let's think about this again. These crystalline stars are supposed to look a lot like traditional five-pointed stars. They need to look organic as if they were grown out of crystal. Yet they need to look very close to our stereotypical image of a star. The idea is that matter somehow crystallizes around the contacts of the spinning machine and takes this unique shape.

I had the idea of growing crystal. If I can get some tiny crystal pieces and then 'surgically' alter them or stick them together, that might work. Or, it would be ideal if you can tease a crystal into growing into a star shape. So I have some rock candy brewing in the kitchen. But I suspect that in the end, this will be more entertaining for Sean than anything else.

Make a 3D image? Get a crystal growing kit? Kit bash a model? Interestingly, I found out that when you search for "crystal model" on Google, you get mostly pictures of half-naked women. I know I could do this by sculpting the shape and then creating an inexpensive custom mold. But my experience with Sculpey made me realize the difficulty of sculpting this kind of an item.

Here we go on yet another voyage through the slough of practical effects.